| Tonight, we dine in Hell. |
[Oct. 5th, 2006|01:53 pm] |
Trailer for 300. Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae.
If this movie is anything near as good as the trailer, it will be just about everything I ever wanted in terms of epic bad-assery. |
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| Just when you thought it was safe to be slothful and indolent... |
[Mar. 24th, 2005|11:01 am] |
Your landlord calls and tells you she's selling the house you live in!
Upshot is that Trick and I have 2 months max to find a new place.
The timing isn't actually bad - we are loosing our other housemate very soon, and we can get something with a better price.
Wheeeee? |
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| Kinda Scary |
[Mar. 22nd, 2005|10:28 am] |
I just liquidated my small stock holdings with Smith Barney, an account that my great-aunt had given me a couple years before she died.
Thus marks the beginning of my being completely responsible for my financial future. It's kind of an odd feeling.
I mean, technically, I've been responsible for it for a long time now - at least since I moved out of my parents' house. But I also generally just went with a policy of benign neglect. I tended to have credit card debt when I was poor, and now I have money in the bank. It was more a matter of whether or not I found neat stuff I wanted to buy. If I did, it was a simple question of whether or not I'd bought more than I had money for.
Now I'm dealing with Roth IRA's and 401k's and the whole shebang. Wheeeee? |
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| I got to make Mike Doughty's day! |
[Mar. 21st, 2005|04:38 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Mike Doughty - American Car | ] |
For those who don't know, Mike Doughty is pretty much my favorite
musician out there. He used to be the lead singer to Soul
Coughing, and has now been solo for a number of years. I find his
stuff to be fantastic.
Here's the email I sent to Mike Doughty today:
Hi Mike,
I’ve been listening to your solo stuff since Smofe + Smang
came out, and I have all of it since. I’ve also been a Soul Coughing fan since
near the beginning, early 90’s.
I was reading in your blog about how you were concerned
about peoples’ reactions to your new stuff. As far as I’m concerned, it’s
fantastic. And looking at the new album’s songs, I’m ridiculously psyched to
see that American Car is on there. I downloaded it when you released it a
couple Christmases ago, and was concerned to not see it any time after. It’s an
amazingly good song.
I love Soul Coughing, but the songs I loved the most are
some of the ones you still play at shows – the ballads. And The Only Answer and
American car are hands down my two favorite songs you’ve ever done.
Anyway, yeah, this turned into a giant fanboi letter, but
the point was that you’ve sure as hell got my support. It’s obvious to me how
your style and music has developed and changed over the years, and I couldn’t be
happier with where it is going. I can’t wait for the album, and I’ll be pushing
it on all my friends.
Here's the response I got:
Aw, man. It's very sweet of you to write this. I was concerned seeing an email
titled "feedback," but you made my day. Thanks : )
Well, that made my day right back. Fan-fricking-tastic!
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| Black Company - First Game in the Bag |
[Mar. 20th, 2005|11:33 pm] |
Ran the first session of the Black Company d20 RPG that I am doing for the guys today. It went really well, I was pretty pleased.
I was stressing making it happen because I don't know my d20 rules as well as I might, I didn't know the magic system at -all-, and I was still coming up with key elements right before we started.
But ehh, that's cool. It wasn't high art, but it got the job done. The job at hand was to accurately invoke the feel of the novels. The scenes in today's game were actually pretty similar to the start of the first novel - someone is screwing with off-duty Company men. Our boys head down into The Staves, the slum in the city of Argent where they're stationed, to dig around, roust some people, and kick some heads. The see the ambush coming - they just didn't know they'd be fighting 2-1 odds. It was a really good fight - they took some hits but no one too too seriously. The mages got to try out all SORTS of spells - at least one of which I want to recreate to make sure you can actually DO that at level 3. Yeah, you, double dragon. Heh. They got the info they needed, they got some prisoners, and they pretty much gave the shiv to a whole bunch of people. In Company style, some deserved it, some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Good time all around. I have a lot I can improve on, but going into this I managed to take a lesson from writing the book - it didn't need to be at the start. It was "good enough", and we'll take it from there. |
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| I want you. |
[Mar. 18th, 2005|10:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
I want you
You've had your fun you don't get well no more
I want you
Your fingernails go dragging down the wall
Be careful darling you might fall
I've loved the song I Want You by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
for a long, long time now. The song is one of the most evocative
I've ever heard... it evokes a need for this woman so strong
that it's not healthy. The first couple lines of the song are
acapella, but then the guitar comes in with a single warbling note -
utterly discordant. It's a sick note from a sick guitar, a sick
mindspace.
I'm putting it on a mix that I'm making, and I'm listening to it now...
and I realized just now that another part of its evocation is that the
rest of the song, the base/drum line to it is a steady, slow thing...
like a patient stalking.
They lyrics alone don't really do the whole thing justice. You really need to listen to it.
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| Neutron Jack |
[Mar. 18th, 2005|07:29 pm] |
From a good article on MSNBC.com regarding superstar corporate CEO's:
"Global conglomerate General Electric Co. was run for years by John F.
"Jack" Welch, a fiery bantam who chewed through life and in-house
rivals on his way to the top, earning the nickname "Neutron Jack" for
the way he slashed jobs: Buildings were left standing, but the people
were gone."
In terms of monikers, that one is pretty terrific.
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| UberGeeky |
[Mar. 14th, 2005|12:55 pm] |
Ultimate Gamer!!
GM says drop 2d10, aanndd... you roll 88% ! |
What, are you a first generation gamer? Did you own the brown box?!
Whatever you do in your spare time, gaming seems to be your job. Either
you looked up the answers or you're the best of the best, the type that
makes other gamers strive to know more. Just don't let the knowledge
overwhelm the newbies, it tends to push them from the hobby.
We all bow before you. You are the living nat 20, congradulations. I'm
going to flee the scene now ;) |  |
My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: | You scored higher than 96% on dice |
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I didn't reference anything to do the quiz, either. Straight-up old-school geekery. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 10th, 2005|10:22 am] |
So, been working on a number of things...
- Boning up on investing. Been doing a bunch of research, and
I am going to start investing some money long-term. I'm way
overdue to start doing so.
- Been in the gym more. I'll need to be consistent before I can really start to crow, but it's a start.
- Trying to move away from buying as much fast-food or prepared
food, for both money and health reasons. I figure, if I'm going
to take the trouble to go to the gym, I probably should bother to eat
better food.
I find that I'm inordinately proud of these things. I mean, going
to the supermarket isn't exactly like walking on the moon. I
think it comes from the fact that, as a kid, I was the one who was
always leaving things on the bus or just blanking out and not doing the
things I was responsible for. My favorite response to my Mom was,
"I'll do it in a bit."
Since I got out of college, I realized that I get a lot of enjoyment
now from taking care of the things I should. As my lady will say,
though, it often leads to me being all psyched that I did something
that most people do every day. Ehh, I'll take it. :)
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| Half-Life 2 |
[Mar. 10th, 2005|09:54 am] |
Downloaded Half-Life 2 via Steam last night. I am amazed.
The settings are cranked to a point where my machine is groaning a bit, even with the new video card and CPU that I just got. That's ok though.
The graphics aren't just great, they're on a different level entirely. The most impressive thing was the way they've gotten eyes to move and work. Someone at Valve realized a while ago that if you have realistic eyes, it makes a character 100x more realistic. The characters in HL2 blink, look at things, glance at things, it's fantastic. Coupled with the phenomenal all-around graphics, it's pretty terrific.
Last night I watched as one character said something bizzare, and his companion, looked back at him askance. For those of you who don't follow or play games much, imagine trying to convey subtle emotion with a pair of wooden dolls. Up until recently, that's pretty much what people were limited to in games.
Hats off to Valve! |
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